Sunrise, Sunset

I wake up to see a changeling before me. Alder came back. Friends always do.

Two months slip away as we wait for the day to arrive when Alder will be summoned home.

"Are you glad to be returning?" I asked him one day.

"I suppose I am, except for the whole time jump thing." He said with a frown. I nodded, I knew how hard that had been for him to process.

"Can you tell me-. Can you tell me more about the Changelings?" I inquired slowly. Alder nodded.

"About two years ago, Nightmare Moon arrested a disguised changeling who was working as a servant and executed him. For no reason at all. Just to show her power. Her name was Remedy and she was very close to me and Chrysalis. Nightmare had always discriminated against any non-pony creature like griffons, changelings, and other beasts, but this was just tyrannical. Chrysalis was outraged. She created an underground changeling alliance in hopes that we could overthrow Nightmare. She sent us all out, in disguise, to work in Nightmare's castle. We applied ourselves in every corner of the castle and watched every move she made. We created plans and recruited other beasts. Griffons became our air patrol and they watched her all through Equestria via the sky, we employed many ponies as well. One night, well it's always night so one um." I interjected.

"At some point?" I suggested in a choked voice. My heart had skipped a few beats and I was still recovering from the news of my sister's utter ruthlessness.

"Yes. At some point about last year, we had a meeting and a plan was formed. This was the climax of the movement. But it was also where it began to break. Nightmare had begun to suspect something so she reinforced security and our missions became harder and more taxing. She examined us thoroughly as if willing us to change to our original form. Then, she caught wind of one of our meetings from a traitor named Thimble. He had been offered a deal by a suspicious elite and he gave us away. Many of us escaped. Some disappeared. The ones that were caught, were killed. Then, about a month ago, we were just beginning to regroup when we came up with the poison plan. Just poison everything. We were desperate and we were small. One night, everyone in her castle was asleep and the hundred of us changelings scoured the palace and poisoned everything that we knew was going to her that day. Unfortunately, we all got caught. One reason I was sent here was that the jails were full, the other was because it was your sister herself who caught me. She called me awful foul things and banished me."

My breath clogged in my throat as Alder finished his tale. My heart ached for everyone struggling in Equestria, for all the lives lost at my sister's flawed hoof. I tried to speak but no words came out.

"Your sister," Alder began, "is there any way to fix her?"

"I- I don't know," I said, with defeat at the edges of my voice. "There might be, but only if six ponies harnessed the Elements Of Harmony."

"No one knows where they disappeared to. " Alder said, quite unhelpfully. "But, legend has it, that-"

"Six ponies are destined to find them." I finished. "Was there any hope of that when you left?" Alder shook his head. "Well, maybe 500 years will have changed that," I added. I could see Alder's spirits sink.

"I-"

"I get it." I said, "but this might have to be a sacrifice that we both have to make. Besides, don't Changelings have incredibly long lifespans?" Alder nodded.

"They only die of love deficiency."

"That doesn't sound too promising in the current Equestrian state," I interjected.

"You'd be surprised at how much love between friends there is in that land. That's really the only thing keeping it, and us, alive." Alder said. Then, he leaned his head against my shoulder.

"How are you feeding here?" I inquired.

"Well, you possess an incredible amount of love for your home and hope for your sister. Also, your heart holds a friendly kind of love for me." He said simply.

Although those words came out so easily, they struck me so deeply that I had to wipe a tear from my eye as I watched the stars, my only glimmer of hope, as they winked at me with their sparkling eyes as if they had a secret. Knowing the stars, I'm sure they did. Hope always has its dark sides.

I wasn't sure how we'd know when Alder was being called, but when the time came, we knew for sure. One day, Alder came running out from behind a lava geyser with a strange blue swirl of magic following him. Inside the void, there were only stars. Alder was rushing towards me and had almost reached me before I realized it was happening. As soon as it came to me, I raced to him and grabbed his cut-up hoof in my white one.

"Do we just jump in?" I asked.

"I'm pretty sure," Alder replied with a sad confidence. He bit his lip. "What if you don't make it through?" He asked.

"I'll wait in the space in between until I can come home." Home. I hadn't thought about actually going home until now and the thought almost scared me.

"I'll- I'll miss you," Alder said, a tear in his eye.

"I'll make it," I said. "If not for me or my home then for you. You're the first friend I've had in 500 years, I owe you my sanity." I said, sounding more confident than I felt. With that, we turned around and I concentrated hard as I chanted the words of the spell. Then, we leaped.

As we traveled through the in between, we were only half awake. I seemed in a state of shock as my head perspired from the effort of the spell. I could feel Alder's smaller form wrapped inside of my arms as we bulleted through wherever we were. Then, the cold hit.

When I came to, everything was dark. I could see faint outlines of ponies standing before me and I could only recognize Alder's shape still curled up inside of me as I took it all in. As my vision came into focus, I saw that there were six mares hunched over us. I could feel Alder stirring a slight bit.

"Excuse me?" A small voice piped. And suddenly everything came rushing back to me. The sun, the leap, the travel, the time jump. Then, I registered my surroundings.

On my far left, there was a bouncy bubblegum colored mare with a frizzy mane and a smile. Then, a bolt blue pegasus with a cool rainbow colored mane and questioning magenta eyes. Next, to her, there was a faint yellow pegasus hiding her teal eyes behind a pale pink mane. A lilac unicorn stood next to her with a very pointed and curious expression as she blew some of her straight mane out of her face. A muscular peach colored pony with a cowboy hat was next and on my far right, there was a stylish snowy white mare with a curled purple mane that flowed around her horn. There was something striking about these six but I couldn't tell what.

"You're Princess Celestia." The Lilac unicorn said. I nodded a bit. "Follow us." She added pointedly.

I was soon up on my feet and desperately trying to take it all in.

"Tell us where the Elements are." The bubbly pink one said as we crossed the barren landscape. I could hardly speak for all I could think of was Alder.

Alder was asleep. But he'd come back. Friends always do, and like he said. Friendship kept things alive. Friends always do.